News at Six Complaint Stage 1: Viewer Response 3

BBC Complaint Webform

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Availability of News at Six transcripts

Further to your email of 06/08/2014 re. complaint CAS-2832936-Y1CMD4 I wish to make a separate complaint re. the statement that transcripts for ‘BBC News at Six’ are not available “due to the prohibitive costs”.

As a TV producer I know all news programmes routinely produce computer transcripts of running orders, P-as-Cs, gallery and Autocue scripts. As an ICT consultant I know the cost of making such computer text available is minimal, not prohibitive.

If privately owned newspapers can make archives of past editions available to the public then the BBC must explain why a publicly funded body, whose primary purpose is to serve the public interest, cannot do the same.

The archive of existing transcripts of the ‘News at Six’ is an invaluable historical record of the news reported by the public’s most trusted news source: the early evening News on BBC1. For the avoidance of doubt, the archive of news available on the BBC website is a record of news reported on a website, not on broadcast television.

Of all the ways the BBC could serve the public interest, allowing access to its archive of existing transcripts of the ‘News at Six’ ought to be high on the list.

As a member of the public I look forward to receiving the BBC’s reasons why the cost of making such transcripts available is more than the licence fee can bear.

Please Note: I wish discussion on this matter to be open to public scrutiny and therefore require all correspondence from the BBC to be subject to that understanding.